Chinese Students’ Academic English Development for Overseas Further Study: A Needs Analysis Framework

Abstract

Many transnational education partnerships require students to have a good foundation in academic English. The joint programmes between China and Australia provide students with an opportunity to study further in Australia, representing several big challenges to the students. Under such circumstances, students’ needs for English, especially academic English, is pressing. This theoretical paper arises from students’ English language development in joint programmes between one Chinese university and one Australian university but presents a framework that is more general. Relevant literature is reviewed, and the requirement for the proposed needs analysis framework is discussed explicitly. This research contributes to pre sessional EAP course design.